Drone Lands on Athlete - Injuries

Companies are announcing delivery of parcels and takeaway food by drone. This is all advertising bling. It cannot possibly happen. Strict aviation rules will apply and this will completely rule them out. They are too dangerous. Imagine one landing on a crowd of people. Its rotors would cut flesh everywhere.

At the moment there is no restriction on their use in most countries because not many are in use. As accidents happen there will be strong calls for limitations on who can fly them. An athlete in an Australian triathlon was hit by a drone carrying a camera. She suffered lacerations to her

head. The owners of the drone said he was not hurt. In other words they denied responsibility. The first thing that must be implemented is insurance for these "flying attack vehicles". Wire protectors covering the rotors is another option. Part of a propeller was stuck in the runners head. To say she was making up her injuries is rubbish - she had three stitches.

The owner of the machine said that the drone had been hacked. This is not possible as few knew a drone with a camera was going to cover the event. Another problem is the question of licencing. The person flying the drone had a licence but the company who hired him did not. This is a gray area in the law. Oddly, the controller held a plane flying licence which does not cover drones.

CASA the official aviation authority is investigating the incident. Apparently many drones have crashed with few being reported. They are powerful machines and can quickly leave a controllers line of sight. Accurate landing software does not exist. A GPS or radar type landing system is absolutely necessary as soon as possible. Until this is done all drones should be banned from highly populated areas.